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Washington Pioneers and Solders in the Indian War
The following data is extracted from Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco..
David Shelton, son of Lewis Shelton and Nancy Gladdin, his wife, and grandson of Roderick Shelton and Usley Willard, his wife, of Virginia, was born in Buncombe County, Virginia, Sept. 15, 1812, migrating with his parents to Missouri territory in 1819.
He married Frances Willson, born in Kentucky, May 30, 1837, and removed in 1838 to the Platte Purchase, settling near St Joseph, where he lived until 1847, when he emigrated to Oregon, taking up a claim on Sauvé Island, which he sold in 1848, and went to the California gold mines, returning to Portland in 1849, where he remained until 1852, when he removed to Washington Territory in company with L. B. Hastings, F. V. Pettigrove, Thomas Tallentine, and B. Ross on a small schooner, named the Mary Taylor.
Shelton and Ross remained in Olympia until 1853, in which year he settled on Skookum Bay, and was appointed one of the three judges of Thurston County, which at that time comprised the whole Puget Sound country.
He was elected to first territorial legislature, and introduced the bill organizing Sawamish County (the name being subsequently changed to Mason), of which he was the first settler. He served in the Indian war of 1855-6, as a Lieutenant in Co. F., W. T. vols.
Mrs Shelton died April 15, 1887, at the age of 70 years. Shelton was a man of strong convictions, and a power in the community where he lived.
His children were Lewis D. W., born in Andrew County, Missouri, in 1841; John S. W., born in Gentry County, Missouri, in 1844; Levi T., born in Clackamas County, Oregon, in 1848; Mary E., born in Portland, Oregon, in 1850; Franklin P., born in Olympia, Oregon, in 1852; James B., born in Mason County, Washington Territory, in 1855; Joicie A., born in Mason County, Washington Territory, in 1857. Franklin P. died in 1875.
Another pioneer of 1853, Henry Adams, was born in Greenville, Connecticut, in 1825, came to California in 1849, to Oregon in 1850, and to Washington Territory in 1853, settling at Seattle, where he worked at carpentry.
He took a donation claim in 1855 on White River, his present home. He was the first auditor elected in King County, and served as county commissioner.
I. J. Sackman, born near Mansfield, Ohio, in 1830, came to California in 1850, returning home in 1851, but only to emigrate to Seattle, Washington Territory
He engaged in lumbering at Port Orchard, remaining there until 1877, when he removed to Port Blakely and opened a hotel, which he owns.
He married Mrs Phillips, a stepdaughter of Capt. Wm Renton, of Port Blakely mills.
Source: Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco.
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